Google Maps Car Did Not Flip Over As Street Views Suggests

Jul 8, 2010 - 8:39 am 0 by
Filed Under Misc Google

Yesterday afternoon, I was using street views to research some locations around my office and I spotted something weird. I was driving up Route 202 and it then appeared that the Street Views camera on top of the Google Maps Car started falling off the car.

I quickly made a video of it happening and posted at Search Engine Land. Here is the video:

Here is a before and after picture:

Google Maps Street View Cam Fell

Google Maps Street View Cam Fell

Google sent us a statement later on that the camera did not strike the floor. Instead it either titled downwards or a screw or something got loose. But it did not hit the floor, nor did the car flip over (not that I thought the car flipped over). Here is Google's statement:

Our Street View cameras are built on a mast that is able to be raised/lowered/angled by our car drivers — for things like going under bridges/overpasses, to more easily do camera tweaking, or when storing overnight. So it looks like in this case, the mast may have tilted or come a bit loose – the camera did not actually “fall off”, and nobody was injured! (In fact, every few months a story will circulate about us “hitting an overpass” because the images show the camera suddenly at strange angles under a bridge, but it’s actually because the driver did his duty and lowered/tilted it, but may not have shut off the camera from still photographing).

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 24, 2025

Mar 24, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search: No Specific Date For Independent Sites Surface Better

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Search Terms Report Gets PMax Terms

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google News

Google: Removing EU News Publishers Had No Impact On Search Ad Revenue

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Conversion Data Lost & Unrecoverable In February

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Overviews With Al Explanation & Related Images Button

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Fixed The AdSense Logout Bug?